I fear for my life, outgoing Auditor General Edward Ouko says

I fear for my life, outgoing Auditor General Edward Ouko says

Kenya’s first Auditor General Edward Ouko says his life is in danger.

Speaking on Citizen TV’s News Night show on Tuesday night, Ouko said that he felt more secure while in office but now he is worried about his security.

“Anyone who had an ill motive would never have manifested it during my tenure because they know I have security but when you leave without a clear post service arrangements…it’s the most insecure time am most concerned about after the office,” said Ouko.

While noting that there is no security arrangement post office, Ouko who left the office a week ago insisted that a change needs to be implemented to ensure the Auditor General is safe even after office.

While noting that he did receive threats a few times while in office, Ouko said that it did not worry him as much then, since his security was more defined.

“That never worried me, in fact it worried my family more than myself… For family, they take it with a bit more seriousness,” said Ouko.

Ouko dismissed claims that he had a strained relationship with President Uhuru Kenyatta saying that the Auditor General’s office was independent adding that the President never interfered with his work.

He however regretted how action on his reports never yielded fruit due to the processes they were subjected to and most of the time watered down.

“There is no need for another legislative system, there is need for synchronization of all the systems; the EACC, DCI, EACC and even Assets Recovery….that the work of the Auditor General somehow feeds into their work and as a reason of the joint work reasons to prosecution,” said Ouko.

During his eight year term, Ouko unearthed many scandals among them the controversial Ksh.3.7 million expenditure to purchase dairy cows in Kisumu County.

A pending bills verification also revealed county debts in excess of Ksh.35 billion were either fake or did not meet threshold for payment.

Another one  also showed how the 47 county governments owed suppliers up to Ksh.108 billion, the highest amount of pending bills in the 6 years of devolved governance.

Ouko was appointed the Auditor-General on 27 August, 2011. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (FCA) and is a co-opted Council Member of the Institute representing Africa.

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